"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Engaged duo Ernie Halvorsen and Cindy Chiang covered four continents, 20 cities and nearly 40,000 miles in their quest to win the latest season of The Amazing Race.

Putting their wedding plans aside to complete the competition, project manager Halvorsen, 29 and his brand manager fiancée Cindy Chiang, 30, walked away with $1 million, a group of new friends and an even stronger bond.

PEOPLE caught up with the happy couple, who dished about their win and what's next for them.

How are you feeling right now? What's going through your mind? Ernie: We just feel elated and relieved. We're just looking forward. We're very optimistic and hopeful for what we can do now that we've won. ... If we could do the whole thing over again without being paid, of course we'd do it.

Cindy: We're excited to have shared this moment with our family and our friends. The experience was invaluable. Just getting to see all these places – literally, there are so few people in the world who got to experience what we got to experience.

What were your lowest moments during the competition? Ernie: One of the lowest points was definitely in Malawi when Andy and Tommy had beat us to the finish line. We were just so devastated. We thought we'd done everything in our power to beat everyone at the race. And it just never panned out for us. We didn't use our express pass. We didn't use U-turns.

Cindy: The wind was just out of our sails that day. I had, unfortunately, gotten hurt during the roadblock cask, and it was really difficult to run. I was trying to do my best and keep spirits high, but it was a tough day for us.

By the end of the competition, which couple were you closest to? Cindy: We're definitely closest to Justin and Jennifer. We actually just asked Justin to be part of our wedding. We keep in touch with every single person from the cast. We were watching with them last night. There's a game to be played, but then there's time for fun and enjoyment.

What was your favorite place visited?

Cindy: I loved Taiwan because my parents grew up there. My brother was living there when we actually toured through the town. But I'd never seen it. It was just nice to experience where my parents grew up and where their families were for many years.

Ernie: Every country had good people and nice people who helped us along the way, but for me, I think the people in Copenhagen stood out more than the others. They were very fluent in English, which we were very thankful for.

What was your strangest or most difficult task? Ernie: Cindy was probably very upset to do the bodybuilding challenge.

Cindy: I didn't want to expose myself like that. All the women were in the dressing room like, "Oh my goodness, I can't believe we're about to do this."

Ernie: On the flipside, I was more than excited to do this. I actually got into my outfit, and couldn't figure out what door I had to go into. I was running around for 15 minutes in my skivvies trying to figure out where I was supposed to put this tanning lotion.

And what are you planning to do with the $1 million prize? Will it go toward the wedding? Cindy: Ernie and I are actually planning to use the winnings to start a business. We really want to be able to help provide education for children in developing markets. We were running around on the race, and we saw all these kids on the street who weren't in school. We came back and we researched and learned that education is not free everywhere. Even public education costs some kind of fee per year. Education is kind of the thing that alleviates poverty.

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

In addition to planning for their March wedding, the determined couple are establishing a charity—funded by their million-dollar prize—to provide education to impoverished children throughout the world.

Read on to hear what the first-place finishers told us today about their amazing race, Cindy's "negative" edit and that cab-driver controversy…

Many viewers of the Emmy magnet's 19th season were upset that frontrunners Andy and Tommy were booted after their competitors' taxi drivers worked together to get them to the finalist-determining pit stop.

"It just as easily could've been to the wrong place—people don't think about that," Cindy told us about their cabbie's confidence that he was driving them to the correct destination. "We put our life in that gentleman's hands," Ernie added. "In reality he could've taken us to the Panama Canal"—the snowboarders' disastrous detour—"too… Communication was pretty tough."

Criticized by many fans for her aggressive perfectionism, Cindy admits, "There's a lot of things I wish we had done differently…It's tough to read a lot of the blogs and the reviews because I don't intend to be a bad or negative person or whiny in any way. I knew they cast us because I was so type A and I knew [the editors] would portray it that way, [but] I wish I didn't give [them so much] ammo—you kind of leave it to the editors and the storyline that they want to create for you. The only I can do is learn from this experience and be a better person and be more conscious of the way I may sound to [others]."

Ernie and Cindy credit to their successful race to rigorous and "creative" preparation. In addition to language courses and physical training, they created their own challenge— scarily prescient of the teams' Legoland contest in Denmark. With the TV blasting in the background, the pair tested their teamwork in assembling a Lego toy truck: "We sat back to back and I had to build the truck based on what Cindy [who had the instructions] was trying to tell me. That was probably the most stressful training we did." Cindy agrees: "We really had to work on our communication skills—we're glad we yelled at each other before we went on the show!"

One thing the generous teammates didn't plan beforehand was their idea to establish a charitable foundation. "But when we were traveling around we saw there is such a huge need for education globally," said Cindy. "Here in the U.S. we often take for granted that public school is actually free." Ernie pointed out that many children around the world "actually want to go to school, but they just can't fund it." The couple plan to apply their "passion for doing things like the race… to provide tuition and subsidize education globally."

Ironically, the million-dollar winners have just fallen victim to the economic crisis. "My company just went bankrupt last week, so I'm unemployed at the moment," Ernie, now the default wedding planner, revealed. After their nuptials, he said, "Hopefully we can get back on our feet again and get this business started and helping others out."

But interviewed after the broadcast, the winners said their most unnerving moment was the basic task of getting a cab at Atlanta's airport.

"Nobody wanted to take us," Ernie said. "That was the most stressful thing as we saw the other teams departing."

Finally a driver volunteered, "and we give him all the rest of our money as a tip," said Cindy.

In ATlanta, each airport cab can wait in line a LONG time...usually 3-7 HOURS for a fare. So NO cab is going to want to take a 3 minute fare when they could get a fare to dpwntown or further. I think the key would have been to say we need you for all day!

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

They should do what I did in the finale of my first fantasy Race: hire drivers who know where to go beforehand if the teams tell them the correct thing. Surely WRP can afford to pay three safe drivers something for the day. I understand that they can't let million-dollar-pursuing-Racers loose on the roads, so how about hiring trustworthy drivers for the day?

They should do what I did in the finale of my first fantasy Race: hire drivers who know where to go beforehand if the teams tell them the correct thing. Surely WRP can afford to pay three safe drivers something for the day. I understand that they can't let million-dollar-pursuing-Racers loose on the roads, so how about hiring trustworthy drivers for the day?

That, would be completely boring.. wouldn't it? They can definitely afford to pay three drivers to bring the teams around but what's the point? If you've had cabbies assigned on the last leg, you mind as well have cabbies for all the teams throughout the race?

They should do what I did in the finale of my first fantasy Race: hire drivers who know where to go beforehand if the teams tell them the correct thing. Surely WRP can afford to pay three safe drivers something for the day. I understand that they can't let million-dollar-pursuing-Racers loose on the roads, so how about hiring trustworthy drivers for the day?

That, would be completely boring.. wouldn't it? They can definitely afford to pay three drivers to bring the teams around but what's the point? If you've had cabbies assigned on the last leg, you mind as well have cabbies for all the teams throughout the race?

I am pointing out that this was close to the strategy employed by Colin in AR5's finale when he was desperate to catch up. He somehow made arrangements for a limo pickup at DFW airport. They just might have overcome the time deficit to Chip and Kim if not for the flat tire they got from riding illegally in the breakdown lane on the right side of the road. The difference is that Colin completely controlled this and WRP did not get in the middle of it. I found this quite exciting. However, I also find exciting the "taxi driver makes the difference" situation as with Thomas and Jill in the AR17 finale.

I actually liked this team, until Cindy made the "A-student comment". As a barely C student myself, and an Amazing Race fan, I'm insulted.

I don't think she meant it in terms of academic ability, she was using the metaphor to represent the teams' race ability. Given the average placings of the teams, I guess she was right, but that doesn't make it okay to say!

I actually liked this team, until Cindy made the "A-student comment". As a barely C student myself, and an Amazing Race fan, I'm insulted.

I don't think she meant it in terms of academic ability, she was using the metaphor to represent the teams' race ability. Given the average placings of the teams, I guess she was right, but that doesn't make it okay to say!

Another thing I forgot to mention was their odd comment regarding "B and C students", inferring that they were above their two competitors. I thought it was odd that the editors left that line in the airing.

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Some fans are finding your comment comparing Jeremy and Sandy, and Marcus and Amani to C students off-putting. Do you want to elaborate on that?Ernie: What was the exact comment? We were partying a little too hard last night. [Laughs]

You said if you lost to them, it would've been like losing to C students because you guys are A+ students.Cindy: We said that?! Oh my God! How awful! That's so terrible. I can't believe we said that!

You have no recollection of that? Ernie, you also said it would've been like losing to your brother.Ernie: [Laughs] Oh my God! Oh, man. We don't remember that. I mean, it's not meant to be negative in any way. It was just that it seemed like Jeremy and Sandy were squeaking by here and there. They won the Panama leg, which was awesome for them, and Marcus and Amani were the comeback kids. I think it was like, being ahead of the pack, you would feel pretty much ashamed if you lost to someone who came all the way from the back and beat you.

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Did you read their comments on that? Yes, they said it, but in the heat of the moment and they were rather horrified that they did say it.

I am sure we have all said things that we didn't mean, had comments misunderstood or taken the wrong way.

So this, to me, is a blip on the screen compared to a whole race run smartly, with joy, and with positive interactions with the other racers, the people they met along the way, and with each other. A C student comparison is NOTHING to the racist "breeding" comments we had from Kendra.

I think they will represent TAR well, and am proud of them for that difficut final leg!

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Did you read their comments on that? Yes, they said it, but in the heat of the moment and they were rather horrified that they did say it.

I am sure we have all said things that we didn't mean, had comments misunderstood or taken the wrong way.

So this, to me, is a blip on the screen compared to a whole race run smartly, with joy, and with positive interactions with the other racers, the people they met along the way, and with each other. A C student comparison is NOTHING to the racist "breeding" comments we had from Kendra.

I think they will represent TAR well, and am proud of them for that difficut final leg!

I agree with you on the C student comparison being better than the racist "breeding" comments Kendra gave. Both admittedly were dumb, but Kendra's comments were far worse. So even if you don't like Ernie & Cindy, Dave the 2nd (and you have a right not to like them), you can't say they made a worse comment than Kendra.

The Early Show revamped its format sometime ago, and from what I understand, no longer felt that TAR interviews/check presentations fit its new format. I think the loss of Harry and Dave was a big factor, they were big fans. And with Phil currently "not available", that may have influenced the decision to not do the Early Show.

However, Early Show aside, one would think that CBS would make alternate arrangements. Getting the "big" check is part of the fun of winning, and could easily have been done by the local CBS affiliate. Just needs a little organization....

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan